AN NHS mistake meant breast cancer screening invitations weren’t sent to 399 women in the Loughborough area who were due a test.

Research by charity Breast Cancer Now has found that 3,292 women in Leicestershire should have been invited for screening tests but were not.

The number of affected women in each Leicestershire constituency is as follows: Bosworth 368; Charnwood 256; Harborough 429; Leicester East 399; Leicester South 272; Leicester West 274; Loughborough 399; North West Leicestershire 195; Rutland and Melton 336; South Leicestershire 364.

The mistake affected 174,000 women around the country between the ages of 68 and 71 around the country and is estimated to have cut 74 lives short.

Mammogram tests should be offered once every three years to women aged 50 to 70.

Women are now being offered dates for tests while a review is under way to determine what went wrong.

Liz Kendall, Labour MP for Leicester West and a former Shadow Health Minister, said the scandal had caused distress to those affected. She said: “This serious failure has caused huge uncertainty for hundreds of my constituents and their families.

“The priority now must be to ensure the NHS is provided with the staff and resources it needs to ensure the women affected are offered a mammogram as soon as possible and to ensure this never happens again.

“I welcome the Government’s review, but I will continue to press the Health Secretary to ensure he provides women across Leicester and the country with the answers on how this problem was allowed to happen and go undetected for so long, putting at risk the lives of thousands of women. I urge any women who are worried they may have missed a mammogram to see their GP as soon as possible.”

Fiona Hazell, director of policy and engagement at Breast Cancer Now, which analysed the constituency by constituency figures, said: “What remains most important is that each and every woman affected has been identified and given all the information and support they need to make an informed choice about whether to attend catch-up screening where appropriate.

“The independent review must now thoroughly investigate how this was allowed to happen and ensure it can never be repeated.”

Last month, Heath Secretary Jeremy Hunt told the House of Commons: “I would like to repeat my wholehearted and unreserved apology to the women affected and their families - and above all reassure them that we are working hard to understand what went wrong and what we need to do to stop similar incidents from happening in the future.”